The modern communications era has brought about a tremendous expansion of wireline and wireless networks. Computer networks, television networks, and telephony networks are experiencing an unprecedented technological expansion, fueled by consumer demand. Wireless and mobile networking technologies have addressed related consumer demands, while providing more flexibility and immediacy of information transfer.
Current and future networking technologies continue to facilitate ease of information transfer and convenience to users by expanding the capabilities of mobile electronic devices. One such expansion in the capabilities of mobile electronic devices relates to techniques of alerting or notifying a user of incoming calls and/or messages. Typically, a user may set or adjust the volume level of his/her mobile device, such as a mobile phone, to a desirable level such that incoming calls may be heard prior to answering the call(s) and so that a call(s) will not be inadvertently missed. However, many users forget to adjust their volume settings based on their surroundings, and hence it can be difficult to contact users of mobile phones who have, for example, turned down the volume on the mobile phone so much that user being called does not notice that his/her mobile phone is ringing. This may result in user dissatisfaction and inconvenience since the user of the mobile phone may miss important calls.
One example in which user inconvenience due to a missed call may arise when the user of the mobile terminal being called is attending a sporting event such as a National Football League (NFL)™ game. While at the game another user may attempt to call the user at the football game and notify him/her of an emergency, for example. If the volume setting of the user of the mobile phone who is at the football game is too low he/she may miss this important phone call. On the other hand, there may be situations in which a user of a mobile phone purposely wishes to miss calls or messages. For instance, the user of the mobile phone (i.e., called party) may purposely reject a phone call or message alert from another user (i.e., calling party) and the user of the mobile phone being called may not be interested in returning or responding to the other user's call (at least not at the present time). Currently, if the calling party calls the user again, the mobile phone will typically ring in the same manner (e.g., at the same volume level) as it did before i.e., when the user of the mobile phone (i.e., called party) ignored the call, notwithstanding the fact that the user (i.e., called party) is not interested in communication with the calling party during this time. Receiving phone calls from a person that the called party does not wish to communicate with at the same ringing volume as other calls (e.g., calls of importance) may be a nuisance and inconvenience to the called party.
In order to provide a solution for the problems described above, it may be advantageous to provide a method for improving alerting and notification capabilities, such as for example, call alerts and message alerts of a mobile device.